TracieCat

I don't really count condiments too much other than my fat free mayo, which I do add to Fitday when I use it, which isnt too often. But I make my own ketchup homemade so I know what is in it and I use either mustard or dijon mustard from time to time and I dont normally add it to my nutrition counts. But I do add salad dressings when I use them and I tend to stick with fat free italian or fat free vinaigrette. There is a fat free balsamic that I really enjoy.

Happy Birthday to you.

I am one of the lucky ones that has never had an issue with any foods at all, everything goes down just like it used to before my surgery, other than large pills which I have to snap or cut in half. But as far as the steak goes, I would say if you dont have much of an issue with other solid or more dry meats that you will be fine to just cut it into very small pieces and make sure you chew chew chew until that pieces is turned into mush in your mouth before you swallow. Maybe a bit of steak sauce on your bites would help if you like it?

For me it is mainly the Crystal Light mixes. I also use some of the Walmart brand of drink mixes that are like Crystal Light. LOVE the lemonade, I drink it daily and I also like the ruby red grapefruit flavor, the Peach and the Peach Iced tea. I drink quite a bit of hot tea as well, mostly either chai blends or other spice type blends and the honey chamomile from Celestial Seasonings is very good. My favorite hot tea of all time though is Sweet Thai from Yogi teas, the stuff of the Gods when combined with splenda and fat free cremora. lol.

For me, it has been so many little things all adding together already to make me not regret my decision for even a single second. My life has been changing in so many ways. I just had new bloodwork done about two weeks ago and for the first time in many many years, almost all of my numbers are within normal range. Even my cholesterol is down to 166. Holy cow, i havent seen anything below about 200 since I was in my 20's. I have been feeling good enough to start doing more activities around the house. I am finally doing all of the cooking again, helping with the routine house cleaning. Going out shopping with my Mom where I am doing the driving. Able to move around more to spend time with my wonderful husband and loving family, chasing after my beloved nieces. I am still in a great deal of pain because of the severity of my hip issue but it has reduced a good bit since my weight loss and that is truly something to be thankful for. And my little lifts also come from people who have not seen me in awhile and they exclaim how good I am looking. All of hubbys co workers who he keeps updated with my weight loss, some family and every time any of my Doctors see me at visits. It never fails to put me in a great mood when I see any of them and does wonders for my ego. lol,

My doctor is one that is a firm believer in what you described and if a patient is still doing well weight loss wise, he ultimately lets it sit with us decision wise whether we feel we need an additional fill. Of course, I am sure that depends on the patient and whether they are following his orders the correct way. I thankfully havent needed much of a fill so far, I only have 3 and a half CC in mine. Congrats on your wonderful weight loss, that is fantastic!

I feel the same way. I overdid things a bit too much over the Christmas holiday, starting with my brothers Christmas party that he hosted for his employees. It was the first and hopefully ONLY time that I completely went overboard and caused myself to become physically sick. No throwing up thankfully. but I sure was miserable for solid half hour till the food passed through my esophagus. I confessed to my Lapband doc and got my much deserved lecture. Ate a bit too much at family dinners Christmas Eve and yesterday too so am thankful those celebrations are past and I can concentrate on getting back on track like I should be. Today is a new day.

It is my understanding that it is normally done on an outpatient basis, depending on any other underlying health issues or complications. Mine was done Inpatient only because I suffer from sleep Apnea and my surgeon wanted to keep me in overnight for observation. I ended up stay overnight plus well into the next evening before my release (my surgeon makes his rounds LATE in the day).

I like this question. I am just shy of three months from my surgery but I definitely can say that I am starting to care what I look like again. For the longest time, I didn't bother wearing any makeup, only on special occasions, maybe a few times a year. Now I am happily spackling it on throughout the week. lol. And instead of my usual year round ponytails, I have started wearing my hair down. Still back from my face in a headband, but it is down and not up for once in what seems like years. And I have been pulling out older pieces of jewelry and trying on some of my older shirts that I had gotten too big for previously. It is a a wonderful thing to care about how I look again. :rolleyes2:

I have one, link in my posts. I not only post about my Lapband experiences, but about other things as well. :thumbup: Will be happy to follow your blog.

Hope that your fill went well yesterday. :thumbup:

OOOH hope you both will do well. Will just tell you what all I packed to take along. Not sure if yours is an outpatient surgery or if you will have to stay. Because of my sleep Apnea, my surgeon kept me one night to keep an eye on me. And because of that, I did have to take along my Bipap machine and hoses. Definitely I packed my Ipod, lol, I wanted to stay connected to friends online and I gave everyone frequent updates on my Facebook account and in emails. It also helped me to pass some time with playing games. I also made sure I had my cell phone so I could make long distance calls as the hospital did not allow it on their phones without a calling card. But if you don't have a cell phone, a calling card is a good thing to have, just in case there is anyone out of the area you wish to touch base with. I took along my most comfy old tshirts and shorts, I thought I would be most comfortable in those. I took along some slippers but actually, was most comfortable in the slipper socks they gave me there. And I did just wear the gown they gave me for most of my time there, until they allowed me to come off of the IV's, then I switched over to my own clothes. I also made sure I had along some comforting scented things from home. vanilla and cinnamon body sprays and perfumes and some of my baby magic calming milk lotion to put on my skin after washing up and at night, I love the scent and it is relaxing. If you are sensitive to any soaps or lotions, bring your own from home so you won't have that worry about having a reaction to the ones they give you in the wash up kits. I brought all of my own. One thing I found that was a huge must for me was taking along my brand new journal and a few pens. I told myself I would start writing in it the day of my surgery and that I did, I started keeping a record of things that evening and wrote in it several times that day and afterward. I sadly don't keep track as much anymore on paper as I have kind of switched over to blogging online but I often print out my blogs and add them to my journal to keep track that way. But It was a huge comfort to me the day of my surgery to be able to write down how I was feeling physically and emotionally. Make sure you take a list of all of your medications you are on and something else that is helpful is to make a written list of any family or friends that you would permit to call the hospital for information about you. Because of current laws, most people are not allowed to gain that info about you without your consent. I had an Aunt that was hospitalized in serious condition and it was horrid for us not being able to get any information out of her nurses about how she was doing. I made sure when I went in for my surgery, I handed them that paper to put in my file so they would know. If you like to read, take along a book or some magazines or puzzle books. I read some and watched in room movies some (they had on Demand films where I was a patient). I took along my portable DVD player but never did get any use out of it so I could have left it at home. I swear, I packed obsessively like I was leaving for an extended vacation. lol. That's my OCD kicking in, I feel a need to take way too much with me for overnights. One other thing to mention, something not so pleasant, was that right after my surgery, I had a serious amount of bowel trouble, sorry to talk about it but it is important because of the fact that because of my frequent trips to the bathroom, I was really sore and found that some creamy vaseline type lotion was helpful there. But that is something they would be likely to give you there if you ask for it. That is about all I can think of. Just relax and it will come and go quicker than you could imagine and it is much smoother than I had imagined too. I was so afraid before my surgery and it ended up being for nothing, it went well and I was home and getting settled back into daily life within a few days. :thumbup: Good luck....

South Beach recipes are wonderful, as are any of the low carb recipes from Dana Carpender. Hungry Girl has some great recipes for things in her recipe books too, and if you sign up for her newsletter, you will get free recipes in there from time to time. Congrats on how well you are doing, that's great! :thumbup:

My Doc also says let them go flat first if I really feel like I can't live without them but I haven't felt the need at all thankfully. I was a huge Diet Ginger Ale freak before I was banded and drank it all day long. I gave up drinking it slowly about two or three months before my surgery and was down to a small serving in the evenings about a month before surgery. I had one slip up when we took our nieces out for the day shortly after I was banded. They wanted a drink and there was a soda machine and I bought them a grape soda to share. Without thinking, I took three sips of that thing before I realized what I did. OOPS. Luckily, didn't feel any effects from that but glad I didn't buy a whole one for myself and swig it down. I find I am happy now with Lemonade, iced tea, Water, crystal light flavors. :thumbup: Wishing you all the best with your surgery, hope all goes well for you.

Goodness these stories make me worried for the time when I have a bigger restriction than what I have right now. I only have had one fill so far and thus far, I can tolerate everything and nothing gets stuck or gives me a problem. It all goes down really easily. Only thing I sometimes have an issue with are potatoes. They dont get stuck, but they do tend to sometimes cause me some nausea so most of the time, I avoid them and only will eat them in teeny tiny amounts from time to time. I am positively horrified at the thought of getting a piece of meat stuck like some of the stories I read here and elsewhere. Yipe that must be a horrible and scary position to be in. I am also worried about what it will be like taking my pills down the road when I am more restricted. I am breaking them in half and taking one at time now because of that fear.

I think that in general, most patients seem to do pretty well with the fills though and dont feel anything but a tiny pinch from the needle. My case with all the lumpiness is more of an exception I think. If you are really worried, talk to your surgeon about it and tell them beforehand that you are afraid and would like to have the numbing medication first off. You have the right to ask for it and I hope that your first fill goes well for you, when are you scheduled for it? Next fill for me, I am asking for the numbing medication before they even try attempting another fill. Not that I dont trust my Doctor, I trust him completely but I know my body and I know that I DON'T want to go through that again with no numbing med.

I am working on trying to get some beans and nuts in my diet more as well since I know they are so healthy for us and the Fiber boost plus the protein is a good thing. What kinds of beans do you like best? So far, have only been intaking some black beans and some chick peas and going to pick up some almonds later this week to start adding to my oatmeal in slivers or in other things.

Oh, I have seen recipes for that before but have never tried it, it will go in my files to try out later, thank you for posting.

I am sure every Doctor has different things that they want patients to shoot for. For mine, he recommends no more than 20 grams of fat a day, although with getting my proteins and healthy fats in there, I am tending to be more in the 25 or 26 grams area.

I made some no bake homemade Protein bars today using basically just uncooked regular oatmeal, Protein powder, a homemade non dairy milk substitute (my Dr. frowns upon milk) and some cinnamon. All patted down into a big glass baking pan and it is now setting up in the fridge. Here is my question... It is my understanding that if you PREMIX Protein shakes from powder and try to store them, the protein in them starts to break down and becomes essentially useless as a supplement. So what happens to the protein when you use it in a recipe, either in a no bake form like I did, or when it is used in a baked form? Will that protein still break down and become useless to me in recipes? I tried doing a search for this info online and could find nothing that fit my question, only that yes indeed, you should NOT premix protein powder with liquid and store it for longer than a day, even if refrigerated. I sometimes am having problems getting all of my protein in and I think having the homemade bars around to use as a Meal Replacement will really help me if they can indeed be used. Am anxious to try some other flavor combos, maybe sometimes add some Peanut Butter powder or slivered almonds, flaxseed, etc. Thanks to anyone that has some info concerning this question. I appreciate it.

I had alot of second thoughts too as I neared closer to my actual surgery date. I am betting that a good majority of us have gone through those doubts and it is completely normal. You are looking at a drastic change in lifestyle and to any of us that have become stuck in one way of living for so long, drastic change can sometimes be a scary prospect. Especially I can relate since I know that so much of my former life was wrapped up in food. Upset, eat some food. Want to Celebrate a special day, eat some food. Just bored, eat some food. I am trying to stay focused now on making my life be about so much more than just eating. Although I admit, I still love my food and am still enjoying coming up with new recipes and cooking. Just trying to make sure it isn't the main focus of my life any longer. It can be a struggle some days though. You definitely will be able to enjoy food again, think too of all of the new tastes that are out there that you haven't enjoyed before. There is a whole world of different tastes out there for us to enjoy. It will definitely change your eating habits though, you will be more focused on picking healthier foods and eating less of it at a time.

I don't deal well with just the plain shakes on their own, I have a hard time stomaching them. What helps me is turning them into frozen smoothies. I mix up about one and a half scoops of Protein powder with a glass of Water, throw that in the smoothie maker with about two or three teaspoons of SF instant pudding powder, some vanilla extract and then some handfuls of crushed ice. WHOOOSH till completely blended up and it ends up tasting alot like a milkshake or thinned out ice cream flavor. I almost always just do straight up vanilla as that is what I tend to like but I sometimes add a half a banana and if I do that, I consider it a meal and not just a supplement. I am toying with the idea of trying adding pumpkin and cinnamon to do a pumpkin pie type taste and haven't tried it with some fresh or frozen berries yet but that is also on the agenda, as is adding some Peanut Butter powder (PB2). The hot chocolate idea sounds like a good one! Will have to try that one. I do have some sugar free hot chocolate powder here, wonder if the vanilla Protein Powder will taste okay added with that?

Congrats and best wishes on your happy journey into health! Glad you are feeling good.

Billie, I am just about a three minute drive up the hill from downtown Kittanning. Am going to Butler Hospital for my support group meetings, my surgeon has his patients organized into one there monthly, although I stressed that I would prefer they be more often and the nurses are trying to take him into doing that. I think it would be good for us all to meet at least twice a month there to share stories and experiences and support. The first meeting went wonderfully, although hubby and I showed up about fifteen minutes late due to doc's office being confused about start times. So are you near to the Cook Forest area at all? We were just up that way recently and we had such a nice time, hadn't been there in about two years so it was nice to take an afternoon and drive around and because it is off season now, there weren't a whole lot of people around, bonus! I did experience my first bout of some serious post op all day nausea that day, due to my own foolishness with the amount of food I ate but we still had a nice time. It was cold that day though so we did just about all of our wandering around from behind the warmth of the car. We went spotting deer up in the woods, drove along the creek, drove up to the Water Tower and back down. Wish we had left earlier to be able to spend more hours but we will be heading back up that way soon, I'd like to go before the serious snow season sets in. Isn't a whole lot to tell about myself I suppose. I have been married for over 20 years, no children but we do share our home with our cats Keeley and Kelsey and they get treated like children anyway. I also have two wonderful little nieces who mean the world to me and I shower the attention on them that I would have liked to have given my own children if I had been so blessed. I am into Photography, photo and graphic editing, computer games, Wii, primitive decorating, saltbox houses, wicker baskets, swimming, time with family. :crying: And can you tell me more about yourself? If you would like, you can message me privately and we can carry on our conversation there. :w00t:

Oh gosh I am so sorry that I never got back to this thread to answer how it went for me. I wasn't really all that thrilled that the Doctor opted to in with the needle on me with nothing to numb the area at first. He said he find that most patients of his do fine and don't end up needing it. Well YEEESH that sure hurt, because of the lumpiness from my surgery, Doc M had a difficult time at first finding where the entrance was located so after me gritting my teeth and him rooting around for awhile, he withdrew that needle, they filled up a syringe with numbing medication, injected that and like three minutes later, I blessedly no longer felt any pain at all. Still took him a bit to get the right area but once he was in, it was fine, he withdrew the tiny bit of saline that had been leftover from my day of surgery, then put fresh saline back in. Had me sit up and then take tiny sips of Water. First sip and my throat made this horrid growl noise, every sip brought more of the same and I started with my "reverse hiccups" where it feels like I have a hiccup come up my throat but it goes back down. lol. And then I felt like I might bring the water back up. I never even got to tell him that much, he could tell by the look on my face and had me lay back down and he put the needle back in and removed some of the saline and I could instantly feel the change, no more regurgitation feeling at all. I sat back up, drank more sips of water and it was all fine. I had some good bruising after that fill, from him moving that needle around so much but no pain at all afterward. I need to double check with the office as there was some confusion there, likely on my part, but am thinking I have 5cc in there now? So far I don't feel any huge restriction, but then I have seen some here and elsewhere say that they didn't feel real restriction until about second or third fill. I still don't feel any real sense of huge hunger, but then I think my body is getting more used to getting by on smaller amounts of food. I do feel some hunger in the mornings and I just have a couple of egg whites or a bit of oatmeal or a Protein shake and I am fine all day. I still am having difficulty with the "head hunger" issue, mostly when hubby and I sit down at night to watch a movie together, then I feel the snack attacks hitting me and I know it is more psychological then physical. I have been trying to stick with using my Protein powder to make frozen smoothies and I am loving those. Thanks for the heads up on the scale, I am getting really sick of this giant rotary one we have now, that thing weighs a holy ton and is really bulky so takes up alot of room in the bathroom.